Susan Smith Blackburn Prize to unveil 2021 winner tomorrow evening

The winner of the 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize will be revealed in a digital ceremony tomorrow.

Celebrating women playwrights, over 160 pieces were nominated, with ten texts then presented in the final round.

The ten shortlisted plays are:

Glace Chase (Aus/US) – Triple X

Erika Dickerson-Despenza (US) – cullud wattah

Miranda Rose Hall (US) – A Play for the Living in the Time of Extinction

Dawn King (UK) – The Trials

Kimber Lee (US) – The Water Palace

Janice Okoh (UK) – The Gift

Ife Olujobi (US) – Jordans

Frances Poet (UK) – Maggie May

Jiehae Park (US) – The Aves

Beth Steel (UK) – The House of Shades

The winner will win a $25,000 cash prize, as well as a signed print by Willem de Kooning. Each of the finalists will receive a $5000 award, and one piece may be honoured with a Special Commendation prize of $10,000.

The winning piece will be unveiled in a digital ceremony via YouTube on 7 April 2021 at 8pm BST / 3pm EST.

This year the judges were director Natalie Abrahami, actor Paapa Essiedu, designer Bunny Christie, director Lileana Blain-Cruz, actor Jason Butler Harner and director Seema Sueko.

Poet's Maggie May had its run disrupted by the pandemic (closing after just three previews), as did Steel's The House of Shades,, which was meant to premiere at the Almeida Theatre with a cast including Anne-Marie Duff.

Previous prize winners have included Lynn Nottage's Sweat, Annie Baker's The Flick and Caryl Churchill's Fen.

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